After successful completion of the course, students are able to.use selected theoretical approaches from regional science to explain economic structures and developments in rural and peripheral regions, to identify relevant problems in rural areas in Austria and to develop suitable strategies to tackle them.

Block 1: City and country: Terms / Urban-rural typologies / Types of rural areas

Block 2: Centre and periphery: concepts / opposites and relations at different spatial levels (global, national, regional) / centralisation and peripherisation / characteristics and indicators

Block 3: Economic structural change in rural areas: causes and effects / future fields of the rural economy, changes in employment structures

Block 4: Shrinking processes in rural areas: characteristics and types of shrinking processes / approaches to slowing down shrinking processes / maintenance of basic infrastructures

Block 5: Differentiation of regional policy strategies for rural areas: neoclassical - keynesian / endogenous - exogenous / specialisation - diversification

Block 6: Support programmes for rural areas in Austria

Block 7: Technology cluster strategy: Theoretical foundations (agglomeration effects, causes of spatial concentration), types of technology and innovation centres, success criteria of technology and innovation centres

Block 8: Energy cluster strategy: Example Güssing

• Discussion of critical use of theories in regional science
• Demonstration of real economic development processes in rural areas
• Consideration of pros and cons of different planning strategies  

Die Lehrveranstaltung ist ein Ergänzungsfach im Wahlmodul 2 ("Raumplanen in ländlichen und alpinen Regionen") des Masterstudiums "Raumplanung und Raumordnung".

Oral examination

Grundlegende Kenntnis von

• regionalwissenschaftlichen und wirtschaftsgeographischen Theorien 
• regionalpolitischen und raumplanerischen Instrumenten